Thursday, February 12, 2009

My Neuroses

For the most part, I consider myself a normal, red-blooded American. Fairly free of hang-ups, issues, excessive baggage, mental oddities, and obsessive compulsive tendencies. In general, I like my house clean. Generally. Like in the bathrooms and kitchen. Of course, if you're talking about my bedside table, the top drawer in the kitchen desk, or that nifty little pocket on my car door, then I lean more towards clutter and mayhem. But otherwise, I'm pretty clean. In a normal, suburban American way. Normal. Not obsessive. But there a couple of areas that I may be considered just a little neurotic about.

1) When I stack up the kids' rainbow colored Ikea plates in the cupboard, no same colored plates can touch. In fact, the same-colored plates need to be at least 3 away from each other. Even if this means rearranging things each time I empty the dishwasher. But that's not that strange, right? I mean, everyone likes thier rainbow colored plasticware arranged in the proper order of Roy G. Biv. Right?

2) When folding paper in half, I really feel like one should smooth the crease between their fingernails. Don't leave that crease large and sloppy. Flatten it down to a nice, sharp point. Ahhhh...can't you feel your breath regulate just thinking about nice flat paper creases?

3) The toilet paper has to come off the roll away from the wall, not close to the wall. This one really bugs me. I can't say why. But if I go to someone's house and their toilet paper is hanging the wrong way, I will secretly take it off the holder and turn it around. Maybe you've noticed your toilet paper turned around after I've been to your house? No? Well of course you haven't. If you cared that much about your toilet paper you'd have put it on the RIGHT way to begin with.

4) My kids' clothing is put away in their drawers in packets. I take a shirt and lay it flat. Then I lay the matching pants (yes, each shirt has a specific pair of pants. No mixing and matching allowed) sideways across the shoulders of the shirt. Then I fold the bottom of the shirt over the pants, turn the whole thing over, and wrap the sleeves around the back. It makes a nice, neat packet. Then the packets all go in the drawer. So when it's time to get them dressed, there is no hunting around for matching outfits, no wondering why there are 6 pairs of pants and no tops in their drawers. Everything goes into and out of the washer and dryer together. And if something should get lost from it's outfit-mate somehow, it goes in a special cupboard until its mate is found. But that's not neurotic, right? It's just being organized!

5) Last but not least, when I eat, I always have to eat the things I like best last. Like if I'm eating Skittles, I eat the yellow and orange ones first, then the red ones, then the green ones, then the purple ones last. They're my favorite. With Starbursts, I eat the yellow and orange ones first, then the pink ones, and the red ones are last. I like both red and pink, but red usually wins out. When I eat dinner, whatever thing on the plate I like best has to be eaten last. So I'll rotate through: one bite of salad (least favorite), one bite of veggies/fruit (next to least favorite), a bite of rice/noodles/potatoes next, then usually a bite of the meat/main entre last. And then I'll go through the whole thing over again until I'm done with the parts I don't like. Then my last few bites will alternate between the second favorite and favorite food. My last bite will always be my favorite food. I just want to end on the best note. But again, that's not as much neurotic as efficient, don't you think? I'm pretty sure everyone does it this way, actually.


So....are you neurotic organized and creative, too? Do tell.

13 comments:

Hildie said...

I was going to comment, but I have too many. Maybe I'll just write my own post about them.

Tiffany said...

You are adorable. And completely insane. But I like you. :)

tammy said...

So if I have 4 out of 5 of the same organizational skills, I need to step it up a notch right?

Chelsea said...

I totally agree about the toilet paper. Over, not under!

I do the packet thing with Sawyer's pajamas but not all clothes. I may have to start doing that!

veronica said...

I officially love you.
Will you be my valentine? :)

Seriously now, I see nothing at all wrong with your list. The only problem is when other people don't cooperate and things get all messy, right?
Get with the program people!

Devri said...

ok, so I admit it, I don't pay attention to the toilet paper roll, but at 5 rolls a day, 4 bathrooms, 2 in diapers, can ya blame me?

Financial Aid for College said...

You are utterly OCD'ed! But who am I to talk with my ADHD, Tourettes, and encroaching senility. YES! I AM A SLOB COMPARED TO YOU!

But I do enjoy your paired and stacked clothing -- it's so quick and easy to dress your kids! As in opposition to any sisters you might have, who shall, of course, remain nameless.

And all that time to re-stack plates thrice a day? No wonder you never have time to read a good book!

I totally agree with you on the TP, however. How can people find the end at 3 a.m. in the dark? I also turn people's rolls around. However, Joanne, the cat lady, says anyone with cats had BETTER darn well have the roll on backwards or it will be all over the floor in 15 seconds.

Very Funny!

Kenny and Kelli Ray said...

#2, #4, and #5...I'm TOTALLY do. The toilet paper thing drives me crazy and I always change other peoples as well. The night I had Bunko last month, someone put the toilet paper on my own roll the wrong way...I was so embarrassed. I hope the next person doesn't think that I would do that. The packet thing...probably won't do that with my kids, because I'm a big mixer/matcher. But in my own closet everything is orangized by what it is...pants, skirts, dresses, button downs, and then arranged by color. I have a lot of these neuroses.

Mia said...

I organize my closet by pants/skirts/shirts/dresses ect then sort by good ol roy g biv with white at one end and black at the other, but not my kids. In fact I let them dress themselves and I don't even care if it matches! Yikes hope that doesn't scare ya too badly. I count my kids toys. We have a 100 piece block set and I count them every time it gets put away. I do this with puzzles and any other toy set I know how many there are supposed to be. All about the crease in papers. I have to refold my program every Sunday because they don't even line up the corners!!!!

tiburon said...

I have way too many to leave in a comment.

But I think you already knew that.

Please see every single post on my blog.

mCat said...

I KNEW there was a reason I liked you so much! I think we were cut from the same cloth.....

Suzie said...

packets?

Anonymous said...

I think you're going overboard on the clothes packets (I mix and match like crazy, but they always match) and the TP thing. Everything else sounds perfectly normal...or it better be.